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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

One of my biggest motivators
for striving to work so hard now is looking forward to a rewarding future.Where you are now with regards to your
health, wealth, relationships, and happiness come largely from decisions you’ve
made 1,5,10 or more years ago.

Sometime in the future, you
will look back at your past.How do you
want to reflect back upon your life?Do
you want to be proud of the choices that you’ve made?

Today I want to talk about
things you can do now that your future self will thank you for.

Start improving your financial situation todayIf you are living paycheck to
paycheck with no adjustments to your spending or saving, a year from now you
will likely still be living in the same dire situation.One financial emergency can put you into a
debt spiral.If you have credit card
debt and only make the minimum monthly payment, a year from now your debt will
still be sizeable.

Life is longAn argument many younger people in
debt often make (myself included when I was younger), is that you should live
only for the moment, since life can be short.What these spenders fail to realize is that statistically, life
is long, and you should plan accordingly.If you don’t plan for your retirement, you may find a lifetime of
working forever until your body gives out.Otherwise you may find yourself to
be a burden on others, whether it’s your family or society.Read this depressing article about what life
without retirement savings looks like. Valuing your free time is one of the best
reasons to strive for financial freedom.

If you are in the middle
class and have financial problems, I’d argue that there is always a way to
improve your situation.But some action
does need to be taken.Let’s face it,
your money problems are not likely to go away by winning the lottery, marrying
rich, or getting a surprise inheritance anytime soon.We are not all given the same advantages in
our lives, but most of us do have some choices that will shape our future.

When I first started working
in 2008, I was living paycheck to paycheck.I was living for the moment and I told myself I would start saving and
investing “sometime in the future when my income increased.”Credit card debt was normal and just a part
of my life – I would always be one month behind on my debt since I took
advantage of credit card interest arbitrage.Thankfully, I always found a way to pay off my monthly credit card
balance in full.

It’s not just about making more incomeIn the past, if I wanted something,
I’d just buy it and charge it on the credit card.Since I was too lazy to cook, I ate out all
the time.If I needed more money, I
would just go out and hustle for more.I
would take on several side jobs or buy and sell merchandise on eBay.I told myself that the way to get financially
ahead was to make more money.Saving
more wasn’t even an option I considered.

I made a good salary but I
still felt constantly broke. Every time
I got paid, the money would go towards paying off my credit card bill.I always found ways to make more money, but I
didn’t even think about all the money I could find by just cutting back my
expenses.

When the financial crisis
occurred, many people around me lost their jobs and were unemployed for a long
time.I watched the news about how the
stock market was crashing and how the US economy was in a recession.People at work started talking about the
importance of saving money.Almost all
of my coworkers started to bring their lunches to the office.I felt guilty going out to lunch while
everyone was bringing his or hers into the lunchroom.I joined them and appreciated how easy it was
to bring my lunch.I immediately noticed
how much time, money, and fuel I saved if I just stayed in the office during my
lunch hour.A common topic of
conversation during these lunch hours was how broke everyone was.Many of these individuals were decades older
than me, still complaining about living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to
make ends meet.

I didn’t want to live like
these broke coworkers, so desperate for their next paycheck.Many of them sadly had a lifetime of working,
yet almost nothing to show for it.Some
expressed regret that they didn’t have any money to buy into the stock market,
which at one point had dropped 50% in value.That’s when I decided it was time to take action and fix my
finances.All I knew about stocks during
this period was that money was made when you “buy low and sell high.”

I turned to the internet to
search for ways to save money and invest.I read every single financial blog and book I could get my hands
on.I actively read through as many
financial posts at Bogleheads.org that I could,
learning as much as I could about saving and then investing in index funds.I met and married a frugal wife.Discovering the Mr. Money Mustache blog really lit a
fire under our asses to work relentlessly to improve our finances.We started saving money by bringing our
lunches to work, cooking dinner at home, getting haircuts at home, cancelling
cable, and making coffee instead of going to Starbucks.Having a high savings rate set the foundation
for having an abundance of money that we could invest.It took many years for me to go from a
paycheck to paycheck existence to saving over 50% of my income.

The most important thing you can do is take action
You can read through a ton of investing blogs and books, but none of this
information will matter unless you take action.Investing for your retirement doesn’t have to be difficult.The simplest of all portfolios could simply
be to invest everything into one stock market index fund.The Vanguard
Total Stock Market index fund (VTSMX) has a minimum initial opening deposit
of $3,000.After that, each contribution
can be as little as $50.Vanguard
Target Date Funds have a good mix between domestic and international stocks
and bonds with a minimum initial opening deposit of $1,000.Future contributions can be as little as
$50.For those looking to invest in an
index fund with even less money, the Schwab
Total Stock Market index fund (SWTSX) has a minimum initial investment of
$1.Opening a retirement or investment
account will take less than 10 minutes of your time.Every single dollar you invest and hold onto
today will continue to increase in value and pay you dividends over time.These small investments over time can add
up to make a big difference.

S&P 500 returns since the beginning. You want to start investing as early as possible.

Our financial situation did
not improve overnight.Little by little
we worked on cutting out expenses and increasing our savings rate.As our income has increased, so have our
investment contributions.I slowly
increased my paycheck contributions into my 401K (sometimes by as little as 1%
every few months) until I could max it out.We slowly saved enough to buy a rental property, which continues to give
off monthly income and tax deductions.

If you are looking to improve
your finances today, the first recommendation I would make would be to track your spending.We automatically track our spending with Mint. We automatically track our investments and asset
allocation with Personal
Capital. We
manually track our spending with ClearCheckbook.After you get a good idea of how much money is coming
in and going out of your checking account each month, you can start to optimize
your budget and investment accounts.

I’m thankful today for the
investment contributions we made years ago.Many of these contributions were as little as $50.Our investment accounts are now close to
reaching $400,000 and our net worth
is now over $1 million. This is all due to decisions we made and stuck
to in the past.Sometimes I regret not
investing more when we had the chance, but there’s no sense in dwelling on the
past.What we can change is our
future.We continue to save and invest
because we likely have a long future ahead of us.Decades from now, I want us to look back on the
financial decisions we continue to make today - and be thankful.

Start
improving your health now

Aside from your
finances, maintaining good health also pays off tremendously in the
future.Small health choices today can
end up making a huge impact on you’re your health tomorrow.

Getting just one extra hour of sleep every night
can make a huge impact

If I don’t get restful sleep
at night for two consecutive days, I find that my mood, creativity and energy
levels suffer the next day.

A recent study found that losing
one hour of sleep when switching over to daylight savings time was associated
with a 24% increased risk of having a heart attack.Insufficient
sleep has also been associated with conditions such as obesity, diabetes,
stroke, heart disease and even cancer.What small changes can you do to your daily activity to get a little bit
more restful sleep?Here are a few ways
that I try to focus on getting more sleep.

I have set a
personal rule of never using my smartphone while lying in bed before
bedtime.When I used to have trouble
sleeping, I would just lie in my bed and mindlessly browse the internet on my
iPhone.Over the years, I’ve learned
that doing so just makes it more difficult to fall asleep.Now, I use the last moments before falling
asleep each night to reflect on my day, visualize my goals, and to be thankful
for everything that I have.A recent study
found that screen time was associated with poor sleep.Those that spend longer times staring at
their screens suffered from shorter sleep duration and worse sleep
efficiency.It took them a longer amount
of time to fall asleep and their quality of sleep was poor as well.

One routine I don’t
like doing JUST before bedtime is flossing, brushing my teeth, and washing my
face.Going through those motions seems
to give me a refreshing feeling, instead of putting me to sleep.To avoid this, I’ve now developed the habit
of doing those things 2 hours before I go to sleep.This way when it’s time to go to sleep, I
don’t have to worry about doing anything else.I just hop into bed.

A little exercise (even walking) goes a long wayWalking is one of my favorite forms of
exercise.It’s relaxing, low impact, and
always helps me clear my head.Walking at least 30 minutes daily can lower
your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, stroke, heart
disease, osteoporosis, breast cancer, colon cancer, and obesity.Walking is an underrated
form of exercise that will improve your physical and mental health.

Since we adopted our dog, we spend a lot of time
walking her.Our dog goes on a walk at
least 4 times a day.While these aren’t
extremely long walks, we do get to stroll around our neighborhood to meet our
neighbors and their dogs.Our dog has
made us more sociable with our community and makes us feel much more connected
to our neighborhood.

Our son absolutely loves being outside.He loves running around our neighborhood and exploring.He is fascinated by all of the birds,
squirrels, pinecones, flowers, and plants we encounter on our regular
walks.Sometimes it’s hard to keep up
with our little man since he runs so fast.Many studies including this
one found that outdoor activity has been directly linked to less
nearsightedness in children.Having 2
children in the house has definitely kept us busy, but we are always able to
squeeze in some outdoor time to walk.

The lifetime benefits of healthier eatingWe mostly cook food at home and we focus on trying
to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.Plant based diets have been shown to reduce
risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and even cancer.Recent research
suggests that diets rich in fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of heart
disease.We minimize our red meat
consumption and stick to eating reasonable portions of chicken and turkey.We try our best to balance our intake of
healthy foods daily.This includes
keeping unhealthy snacks and junk food out of our home.If we don’t have any unhealthy food in the
pantry, there’s no temptation to eat it.And if we do splurge by eating an unhealthy meal, we try to make up for
it by having our next meal be healthy.

James Clear wrote a
great article about effortless
ways to lose weight and eat healthy that is definitely worth reading.Maintaining a healthy lifestyle now pays off
in the future with less sickness, less money necessary to pay for health
expenses, and an overall better quality of life.

Live a life
that you will be proud to look back on

10 years from now, do you
want to be in the same financial situation you are in today?Do you want to be overweight?Will you reach financial freedom 10 years
from now? Do you want to look back at your life history with regret, or with
appreciation?Change doesn’t happen
unless you take action.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

The great thing about doing side
hustles to generate extra income is that you can hustle on your own terms. The more hard work, time, and creative effort
you put in, the more extra money you can make.
You can hustle as little or as much as you want, whenever you want. It’s your extra money, and you can choose how
you want to spend it. Instead of focusing on what ideas don’t apply to you,
try focusing on different side hustle ideas that you can implement to work for
your situation.

Once a month (usually on the 1st), I like to post a
short summary of our personal and financial situation for the previous month. Here I’ll share some of what’s been going on
with our lives and our side hustles.

Welcome
to March, did everyone have a good February?It’s been a short but great month for us.We continue to work hard to save and invest
for our future.With the recent stock
market volatility, all our extra income has been going towards our index fund
investments.At one point, we were buying
stocks at a 10% discount!

Did
you celebrate Valentine’s Day this past month?With a newborn at home, things can get pretty busy.

I only was reminded about Valentine’s Day when
a coworker came up to me and said “So, are you ready for the big day
tomorrow?What are you going to do for
your wife?!”I guess for most non-frugal
people, Valentine’s Day is a legit holiday where money must be spent to show how
much you love your significant other.Oh, and you absolutely must go to a fancy restaurant - because, that’s
just what normal people do.

Valentine’s
Day is just another normal day for us at home.We don’t need a special day to remind us to love each other.We find joy in the little things, many of which
just so happen to be free.

February
has been another month full of walks around our neighborhood.It’s great exercise chasing after our
son.He has so much energy and always
keeps us on our toes.He just discovered
sand and just loves to play with it and get himself covered in it as well!

Our
son also flew a kite for the first time.

In
other news, our son has developed an obsession for sea creatures – I think his
father’s obsession has rubbed off on him!I’ve been checking out books at the library and our son just loves
flipping through the pages to learn all about different types of sea
creatures.

He also loves when I draw him
different sea creatures.Lately, he’d
rather play with his pictures than his toys!

Here’s
our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month
of February.

We are traveling as a 4-person family to
Seattle for a mini vacation and to attend a wedding.Since our daughter will only be 6 months old
during this trip, we wanted to stay in a suite
with an extra room, so that our toddler can sleep in his crib without getting
too disturbed by a crying baby.After
doing a ton of research on Tripadvisor and Google, I found the La Quinta Inn &
Suites Seattle Bellevue / Kirkland hotel to be a great fit for our
family.

Their 2 room suite with king bed
and living room is equipped with amenities like free WiFi, free breakfast,
microwave and mini fridge, coffee maker and free parking.I found the cost per night to be very
reasonable.Thanks to our abundance of
Ultimate Rewards points, we don’t need to worry about a $700+ hotel stay
busting our vacation budget.

Survey Income

On 2.1, my wife received a $10 Amazon gift card for completing a short Amazon.com survey

On 2.5, I received a $40 check from E Rewards Medical

On 2.5, I received a $10 check from M3 Global Research

On 2.5, I received a $50 check from M3 Global Research

On 2.9, my wife received a $10 Amazon gift card for completing a Chase survey she received in
her email

Rental Income

On 2.5, we received a net profit of $455 from our rental property.Our tenants paid rent a day late again.To encourage our tenants to pay on time, our
new lease agreement has an increased late fee.

Teaching IncomeOn 2.5, I received a check for $162.50 for
teaching at the local university.

Miscellaneous Income
On 2.1, I noticed a bank charge that was incorrect on my new Chase Business
checking account.The bank charged me a $12 fee that was a mistake.Somehow the bank charged me an “insufficient
minimal funds” fee that I wasn’t supposed to get.I called in and the representative on the
phone quickly reversed the fee.Thanks
to Mint and Personal
Capital, I was able to see the charge and then it was easy to get another
credit on my account.

On 2.20, I received a check for $16.95 from Equifax due to a previous
class action settlement.I get all of my
class action updates from Doctor of
Credit.

Website IncomeOn
2.21, I received a direct deposit of $100.25
from Commission Junction for income generated by the website.Thank you for your support.

Expenses ReducedOn
2.5, I noticed that our insurance for our rental property increased by
$14.25.I contacted our agent to see
what we could do about reducing the cost of the insurance.I was able to increase the deductible to
$2,500 and reduce our insurance premium by $39.64.All it took was a simple email.The less expenses we spend on our rental
property, the more rental income we get to keep.

Monthly Totals:

We saved $729.76
on award travel

We earned $120
from paid surveys

We earned $455 from rental income

I earned $162.50
from teaching
We earned $28.95 from miscellaneous
income

We earned $100.25
income generated by this website

We saved $39.64
on our rental property insurance

All of this totals $1,636.10 from our side
hustles for the month of February.Are you hustling for income on the side? I'm working on a few other side hustles that should pay off this next month.